Walter Lowenfels
|death_place = Tarrytown, New York, United States |occupation = oet, journalist, editor |nationality = American |period = 1925-1975 |genre = |subject = |movement = Socialist surrealism |influences = Du Fu, Dante Alighieri, John Milton, Leonardo da Vinci, Karl Marx, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, Vladimir Lenin, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Éluard, Calvin C. Hernton |influenced = |signature = |website = }} Walter Lowenfels (May 10, 1897 - July 7, 1976) was an American poet and journalist. Life Youth Lowenfels was born in New York City to a successful butter manufacturer. He graduated from a preparatory school in 1914, and served in the military during World War I, after which he began writing poetry. He worked for his father's company from 1914 until 1926. He met Lillian Apotheker (who later co-edited several of the anthologies of poetry he edited) in 1924. In 1925, with the financial assistance of Apotheker, he published his first collection of poems, Episodes & Epistles. Lowenfels and Apotheker married in 1926. Early career In 1926 he left the family business to hone his poetic craft in Europe, spending time in Florence and Paris. There he was exposed to the literary scene, meeting Henry Miller, T.S. Eliot, Ford Madox Ford, and other luminaries. In 1930, while still in Paris, he co-founded Carrefour Press with Michael Fraenkel, which published the pamphlet Anonymous: The need for anonymity. The pamphlet was a manifesto declaring the need for anonymous publication in order to "avoid artistic competition and alienation." Carrefour later anonymously published Lowenfels' play USA with Music, but was forced to reveal the identity of the playwright in 1932 when it filed a plagiarism suit against composer George Gershwin. Thereafter, the publishing house attributed its publications to their authors, effectively ending the anonymity movement. Lowenfels continued to write and publish his poetry, which showcased his leftist political views, as well as editing the poetry of others. He also became concerned about the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. Return to the United States Lowenfels returned to the United States in 1934, settling in Mays Landing, New Jersey, and went back to work for his father. He continued to write poetry at night. He wrote to Henry Miller about the transition from poet to businessperson: "I butter from nine to five and then I change into a butterfly and go ahead with poems." In 1938, he published Steel 1937, which began with an open letter to Philip Murray, the CIO organizer behind the unionization drive at Little Steel. The poems in the book commemorated the 18 steelworkers killed by US Steel during the 1937 Little Steel strike, and also discussed the Spanish Civil War. Following the publication of Steel 1937, Lowenfels quit writing poetry and would not resume for 17 years. In 1938, Lowenfels moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he became involved in the Civil Rights movement and the struggles of working people. He began writing for the Pennsylvania edition of the Daily Worker, later rising to the position of editor, which he held from the late 1930s until 1953. As a journalist and editor, his work focused on the lives of working people, especially African Americans. He was active in various causes, including the campaigns to free the Scottsboro Boys and Willie McGee, an African American veteran accused rape in Laurel, Mississippi. (McGee was later executed.) He also supported striking coal miners, and campaigned to draft Franklin Roosevelt for a 4th presidential term. During this time, he only worked half time for the paper, supplementing his income by selling intercommunication devices door-to-door. His primary means of support, however, was his wife's teaching salary. On Christmas Day, 1949, Lowenfels published an article in the Worker entitled "Santa Claus or Comrade X?," in which he mused about the "difficulties" of living with 5 women (his wife and 4 daughters) who spent their time washing, sewing and worrying about their clothes. The article was fiercely criticized by the paper's feminist readership, and the paper published several letters to the editor critical of the piece. Lowenfels' attempts to redeem himself in subsequent articles served only to anger his critics further, and the incident damaged his standing within the Party and the larger movement. The incident was examined as an example of efforts to confront male supremacy within progressive movements in a book by historian Kate Weingard. In about 1951, Lowenfels suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered. He purchased a cabin in rural Weymouth, New Jersey, where he and his wife took up residence. Trial At 2 a.m. on July 29, 1953, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Lowenfels' cabin and arrested him. He was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the US government, a violation of the Smith Act. He was tried with 5 co-conspirators, a number that later grew to 9 and also included Robert Klonsky. In a meeting of the accused to determine a defense strategy, it was agreed that Lowenfels' best contribution to would be to continue writing poetry. During the trial, he also took up the translation of poetry by French and Italian authors. During this period, Lowenfels completed Sonnets of Love and Liberty, a work dedicated "to Peace, the loveliest prisoner of our time." During the trial, the government never used his own writings as evidence against him. "They chose, rather, passages from State and Revolution, as interpreted by FBI Marxists." Lowenfels characterized the witnesses against him as "former communists who had become informers and agents for the FBI at a fair rate of pay". He and the co-conspirators were kept segregated from the general prison population in the maximum security division of Holmsburg County Prison in Philadelphia. Nonetheless, due to his health, was often allowed to visit friends who lived near the courthouse, and even made a cross-country trip with Lillian, during which he read poems publicly to raise money for his defense. He was convicted in 1954, but his conviction was overturned in higher courts shortly therefter for lack of evidence. Later life Following his release, Lowenfels stopped editing the Pennsylvania Worker and returned to writing poetry. He never suffered any repercussions from his community; he later wrote, "In our area, people seemed to put "overthrow the government" in the same category as moonshine or illegal deer." He became best known as an anthologist of avant-garde poetry. He edited an anthology of Walt Whitman's poetry, but his most famous anthology was the 1967 Where is Vietnam?, a compilation of the poetic responses to the Vietnam War. He was active in the anti-Vietnam War peace movement, serving as the associate editor of the anti-war publication Dialog, and joining a group of writers and editors who refused to pay taxes in protest of the war. In total, he wrote more than 2 dozen books of poetry. He also wrote an autobiography, My Many Lives, the 2nd half of which is published in The Portable Walter, an anthology of his writings. Lowenfels died in Tarrytown, New York. Recognition In 1931 he shared the Richard Aldington Poetry Prize with E.E. Cummings. Publications Poetry *''Episodes & Epistles''. New York: Thomas Setzer, 1925. *''Finale of Seem: A lyrical narrative''. London: Heinemann, 1929. *''Apollinaire: An elegy''. Paris: Hours Press, 1930. *''U.S.A. with Music: An operatic tragedy''. Paris: Carrefour, 1930. *''Elegy in the Manner of a Requiem: In memory of D.H. Lawrence. Paris & New York: Carrefour, 1932. *''The Suicide. Paris: Carrefour, 1934. *''Steel, 1937''. Atlantic City, NJ: Unity Publishers, 1938. *''The Prisoners: Poems for amnesty''. Philadelphia: Whittier Press, 1954. *''Sonnets of Love and Liberty''. New York: Blue Heron Press, 1955. *''American Voices''. New York: Roving Eye Press, 1959. *''Land of Roseberries'' (with drawings by David Alfaro Siqueiros). Mexico City: El Corno Emplumado, 1965. *''Some Deaths: Selected poems and communications, 1925-1962''. Highlands, NC: Nantahala Foundation, 1964. *''We Are All Poets, Really''. Buffalo, NY: Intrepid Press, 1967. *''Epithalamium''. Santa Barbara, CA: Unicorn Press, 1968. *''Thou Shalt Not Overkill: Walter Lowenthels' peace poems'' (edited by Lillian Lowenfels; with foreword by Ronald Gross). Belmont, MA: Hellric, 1968. *''Found Poems, and others''. New York: Barlenmir House, 1972. *''Reality Prime: Selected poems'' (edited by Joel Lewis). Talisman Books (Classic American Poets Series), 1998. Non-fiction *''To an Imaginary Daughter''. New York: Horizon Press, 1964. *''My Many Lives: The autobiography of Walter Lowenfels''. Homestead, FL: Olivant Press, 1968. *''The Life of Fraenkel's Death: A biographical inquest'' (with Howard McCord). Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1970. *''The Revolution is to be Human''. New York: International Publishers, 1973. *''Reality Prime: Pages from a journal''. Brooklyn, NY: Cycle Press, 1974. Collected editions *''The Portable Walter: From the prose and poetry of Walter Lowenfels''. New York: International Publishers, 1968. Translated * Paul Eluard et al, Song of Peace (blockprints by Refregier). New York: Roving Eye Press, 1959. *''Translations from Scorpius''. Monmouth, ME: Poetry Dimension Press, 1966. Edited *''Poets of Today: A new American anthology'' (with prologue by Langston Hughes). New York: International Publishers, 1964. *''Where is Vietnam? American poets respond: An anthology of contemporary poetry''. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1967. *''The Writing on the Wall: 108 American poems of protest''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969. *''In a Time of Revolution: Poems from our third world''. New York: Random House, 1969. *''From the Belly of the Shark: A new anthology of native Americans''. New York: Vintage Books, 1973. *''For Neruda, for Chile: An international anthology''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1975. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Walter Lowenfels, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 16, 2014. See also *List of U.S. poets References His papers are housed in the special collections department of the Olin Library, the main library of the Washington University Library System, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University. Notes External links ;Audio / video */ Walter Lowenfels at PennSound ;Books *Walter Lowenfels at Amazon.com ;About *Lowenfels, Walter, 1897-1976, Biographical History *Walter Lowenfels by Jim Burns *Walter Lowenfels: A biography at Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company: A Henry Miller blog. *"Walter Lowenfels, Marxist poet and editor of Worker dies at 79" obituary, New York Times ;Etc. * Walter Lowenfels Papers at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. * Category:1897 births Category:1976 deaths Category:People from New York City Category:Members of the Communist Party USA Category:American journalists Category:American military personnel of World War I Category:American poets Category:American tax resisters Category:American translators Category:Marxist writers Category:McCarthyism Category:Translators to English Category:Writers from New York Category:Marxist poets Category:Communist writers Category:Communist poets Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish poets